Martin Canning hopes to have a full Hamilton squad to choose from for the visit by Aberdeen on Saturday.

If that isn’t the case, he certainly hopes to have defender Georgios Sarris and midfield trio Ali Crawford, Grant Gillespie and Danny Redmond back for the trip to face Rangers at Ibrox on November 18.

He said: “They’re all coming back at round about the same time.

“Saturday was the aim, to try and get one or two back. It might be a little bit too soon, and if we don’t get them back for Saturday I would hope the four of them are back for Rangers.

“That would give us another boost again, in terms of the strength of the squad, and getting back up to a normal sized squad.”

Canning said Saturday’s 3-1 win over Dundee was just reward for their efforts in recent weeks.

He said: “It was pleasing. The performance was good, but the result is always the most important thing.

“We’ve been a wee bit unfortunate in weeks gone past and we’ve maybe made wee naive mistakes that have cost us goals, but on Saturday everybody was at it, which was important.

“Going 2-0 up you think ‘that will be the game’ and when you concede the penalty quite quickly thereafter you’re thinking ‘not again’ – then Massimo Donati got sent off, which was naive and silly for an experienced pro.

“I said to him in there that he owes the players, because they dug in even deeper when he went off.

Canning was pleased that striker Antonio Rojano got his first Hamilton goal in the 3-1 win at Dundee (Image: Alan Rennie/SNS Group)

“Antonio was fantastic, he works so hard for the team and I’m really pleased that he’s off the mark.

“All over the park there were a lot of good performances and we have to now try to take that into the Aberdeen game.

“The win was huge; obviously you don’t want to keep putting so much into games and not getting three points, so to get the win was great.

“The boys’ attitude has been fantastic, they worked hard and that has never been an issue with me – they always work hard, they always give everything and leave nothing out on the pitch.

“Sometimes we make wee mistakes that cost us goals, but thankfully on Saturday we managed to get the three points and we have to try and do that again on Saturday.”

Having come through a period where they went eight games without a win – and six successive defeats – Canning hopes returning players will stabilise the ship.

He said: “There are going to be spells again this season, because the league is so tight, when you don’t pick up three points as often as you would like. Breaks here and there will go against you, which was happening in the last few weeks, and you don’t pick up the wins.

“You have to try and keep your head right, keep working hard, and thankfully on Saturday we managed to get what was a big three points.”